Wootton Bassett, the £46,000 yearling turned $100 million stallion, has died at Coolmore Australia after a bout of pneumonia forced veterinarians to euthanise the brilliant son of Iffraaj.
As the days went on, those closest to one of the world’s best stallions in Wootton Bassett knew his fate was inevitable.
And on Tuesday, Coolmore’s worst fears were realised when veterinarians were left with no option but to euthanise the 17-year-old at its Jerrys Plains property in the Hunter Valley just as he was in the early stages of his fifth shuttle season.
The first signs of trouble came on Thursday when Wootton Bassett was diagnosed with choke - a condition caused when food or foreign objects block the oesophagus that carries food from the mouth to the stomach - which subsequently developed into pneumonia.
Coolmore flew in Dr Nathan Slovis from Hagyard Equine Medical Institute from America while retired vet Dr John Freestone, who was affiliated with the Magnier family’s Australian operation for more than 25 years, was also consulted.
But Wootton Bassett deteriorated rapidly and it was apparent that he was likely to lose his fight for life despite receiving the best care.
While the commercial realities of his loss will be immense, so too is the emotional toll on the staff at Coolmore’s studs in Australia and Ireland who worked with the remarkable stallion over the past five years.
The death of Wootton Bassett will be felt across the global thoroughbred industry such was his impact, starting at a lowly €6,000 fee at France’s Haras d’Etreham in Normandy, that he could not be ignored.
His first European crop produced just 23 foals, 15 of them going on to win a race, but it was through the deeds of his three-time Group 1 winner and champion three-year-old Almanzor that his potency was recognised.
That’s when Coolmore came knocking in the northern hemisphere summer of 2020, acquiring Wootton Bassett in a deal that Haras d’Etreham’s Nicolas de Chambure could not ignore.
It’s believed Coolmore paid up to €40 million (A$71 million) to buy Wootton Bassett.
Bigger numbers and better mares don’t always guarantee the continued upward trajectory of a stallion, but in the case of Wootton Bassett, the support of John Magnier and his Coolmore partners with some of their best mares, the son of Iffraaj has more than repaid their huge investment.
In two crops conceived in Ireland to race thus far, there have been 25 stakes winners, 18 from his now three-year-olds and seven so far from his current northern hemisphere juvenile crop.
"Included amongst these are multiple Group 1-winning sons Camille Pissaro and Henri Matisse as well as this season’s multiple Group 1-winning filly, Whirl. His current two-year-old crop in Europe already includes six Group winners,” Coolmore said in its statement confirming the untimely death of their elite stallion.
"Albert Einstein, who defeated subsequent Group 1 winner Power Blue in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes, is considered by both Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore to be one of the best two-year-olds ever seen in Ballydoyle.
“Two more colts, Constitution River and Puerto Rico, have won Group 2 races in recent weeks while a pair of fillies, Composing and Beautify, both scored at the same level.
“Coolmore’s valued clients have three more crops in the pipeline, the first of which will come under the hammer at the (northern hemisphere) yearling sales in the weeks ahead."
Among that first Coolmore-bred crop were 10 two-year-old Group winners, bettering the European record of seven jointly held by Danehill and Galileo.
Wootton Bassett’s southern hemisphere progeny, the oldest of which are three, have demonstrated significant talent with eight stakes horses emerging so far from that single crop to race.
Two of them, the Golden Slipper runner-up Wodeton and ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes-placed State Visit, will contest Saturday’s Group 1 Golden Rose.
Wodeton and State Visit, in the Chris Waller and Ciaron Maher stables respectively, are colts owned by Coolmore and a Group 1 as soon as this weekend by either three-year-old would be dearly savoured.
Royal Patronage, a northern hemisphere-bred entire, won this year’s Group 1 Canterbury Stakes while Al Riffa, the winner of the Curragh Cup and Irish St Leger at his past two starts, is favourite for this year’s Melbourne Cup.
Wootton Bassett was standing at $385,000 (inc GST) this year, an Australian record service fee. He has 98 southern hemisphere-bred two-year-olds, 66 yearlings and potentially more than 90 foals being born this season.
Overall, Wootton Bassett is the sire of 71 stakes winners, including 16 Group 1 winners, with the promise of more to come.
As a racehorse, Wootton Bassett was unbeaten in five starts at two for trainer Richard Fahey, with his juvenile season rounded out in 2010 with a victory in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp.
But at three, he was unplaced in four starts, finishing seventh in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, the year Frankel almost appeared beatable.
With colts Zoffany and Excelebration filling the placings behind Frankel, Wootton Bassett’s credentials saw him retired to stud at the end of his three-year-old season.
Almanzor, the horse who started it all for Wootton Bassett, is now permanently domiciled at Cambridge Stud in New Zealand, while another Group 1-winning son, Prix de I’Abbaye scorer Wooded, shuttles to Swettenham Stud in Victoria.
